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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

For this years Adepticon team event I built a simple, albeit larger, display board. Given the size of the 2 armies (Wood Elves and Brets) I wanted it to be a little bigger than normal. Also, I wanted to convey the feel of the field from the Battle Beruna from the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe (we did a Narnia inspired army) without making it needlessly complicated.

First step was to find a suitable sized cork board. I usually prefer to use ones with black frames to avoid having to paint the frames. But I couldn't find one of the right size. So I settled on this medium sized board from Hobby Lobby for around $9.

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Next I went to the computer and created patterns for the foam. I then proceeded to cut them out. The exposed rocky texture (gray areas on the final board) were created by dragging a steel ruler across the foam.

With all the pieces cut I went through the simple process of gluing them up with wood glue. After applying the glue I used a heavy steel plates placed on top of the foam to lock everything together. I let the glue dry overnight. I taped up the framed with painter tap to avoid getting it mucked up in the next few steps.

Next I painted the board with Burnt Umber. I painted the exposed areas gray followed by a few dry brushes with lighter colors. After the paint dried I applied PVA to the brown areas and applied Farm Pasture flocking.

One the glue was dry from the previous step I saturated the flock with a 1 to 1 mix of PVA and water. I then applied 2mm Late Summer static grass over the wet flock with a static grass applicator.

After removing the painters tape I spray painted the frame black. Next I created a simple rocky backdrop out of 2" foam using hobby knives and sand paper.

Finally, I painted up the rocky background and added a few flowers and grass clumps to tie the display board to the army (which used the same materials on their bases).

Here's a few photos of the completed board. It turned out great and I'm happy to say that I was able to sell the board at Adepticon after the team event meaning I didn't have to haul the darn thing home!﻿